I never had the time during the trip to load, edit, organize and post photos other than single camera phone shots. Here are a bunch of photo albums from various phases of the trip. As always, click on the photo to access that entire album.
Yellowstone National Park was fun even with the stress of the van problem, although we didn't stop as much as we would have in normal circumstances. At times the van was making a loud racket - like someone was under the van banging on it with a hammer. People would turn to look from 100 yards away when it was doing that. So we weren't too motivated to drive around the park exploring a lot.
We entered at Mammoth Hot Springs and drove through Roosevelt to Canyon. Then to Norris, Old Faithful and Grant Village at West Thumb. Once we decided to escape the park, we drove back to Madison through Old Faithful and then out the West Entrance. From West Yellowstone we drove north on Highway 191 to Bozeman. We thought the Gallatin River Valley along 191 was some of the prettiest scenery we saw on the whole trip.
We got to Devil's Tower about 10:00pm on the day the van got fixed. We had left Bozeman about 1:00pm and stopped for pizza and slurpees in Sheridan, Wyoming.
It was worth the side trip off I-90 (about 60 miles total) to see Devil's Tower. It was cool to arrive there in twilight and still be able to see the silhouette. We left pretty early the next morning so all we saw was the campground.
Mt. Rushmore has changed a lot since I was last there in 1991. The nearest town, Keystone, has grown into a kitschy tourist trap. And they have completely replaced the visitor facilities with a large parking structure, formal entrance to the memorial, new concessions, a museum and a huge amphitheater. It was pretty hot when we were there so we watched a movie in the museum theater just to be cool for a while. The new facilities are nice but I miss the ugly old building.
A real highlight of my trip was visiting relatives in Chicago and Detroit.
We had a very relaxing visit with Uncle Gary and Aunt Kathy. It was cut short a little by our Yellowstone mechanical delay but it was still great to see them and meet their children. And we very much enjoyed the Beethoven concert they treated us to.
Then it was on to Detroit where I got to see all of my extended family there again and meet their next generation. I mentioned in another post that I hadn't seen my aunt and uncle and cousins there since 1978. We hope to make it back much more often than that, taking advantage of the much shorter trip from Boston than from Seattle.
I already posted photos from Niagara Falls and Watkin's Glen. So we'll skip forward to the Delaware Water Gap in Pennsylvania.
When my friend Bill heard we would be at the DWG he suggested we visit Bushkill Falls. "The Niagara of Pennsylvania!" We did and it was fun. We got to feed the mosquitos, but between feedings we enjoyed the boardwalks that took us above, around and next to the falls and river.
We also had dinner at a great diner with friendly staff and good food. Classic chrome exterior. LCD TV on every table and the staff almost insisted we turn it on. We did for about three minutes.
We got to Hoboken midday on July 3 and met up with my good friend Bill. We met in Seattle but didn't become good friends until I moved to Boston in 1991 shortly after Bill had moved to New York to work in TV. We've had some great adventures together. We went on a couple of mountain biking vacations together to Moab, Utah; West Virginia; and New Zealand. He's a muckety muck at NBC now.
We spent a big chunk of time at a local spray park in Hoboken. The kids could have stayed there all day. But we dragged them out of the water to indulge my crazy idea of heading into NYC to visit the Empire State Building. When we got there the guard said it was a 90 minute wait. Somehow we found ourselves in line anyway and we eventually made it to the main observatory on the 86th floor. Once we had survived that we headed back to Hoboken for dinner. Then Carol and the girls and I said our goodbyes and headed to Fort Lee, New Jersey for the night to position ourselves for the final leg to Boston.
It seemed really appropriate to arrive in Boston on the 4th of July. The suite hotel I wanted to stay in wasn't available, so I made a reservation for one night at the Hotel Commonwealth, a swanky place that is the Merck preferred hotel because it is convenient to the Boston office (my new workplace). It also happens to be very convenient to the site of the fireworks.
On Sunday we played tourists in our new home town. There are several children's books that are set in Boston: Make Way for Ducklings and Catie Copley are Audrey and Charlotte's favorites. So we visited the sites that are in those stories: we rode the Swan Boats, visited the ducklings sculpture and went and petted Catie at the Copley Plaza We also walked around Beacon Hill a little because Audrey appreciates architectural charm, and we waded a little in Frog Pond.
This photo album contains a random collection of photos from the trip.
One unexpected highlight of the trip is a big jump in both girls' independence in water. We've been going to swim lessons at the YMCA for a couple of years and both have made progress. But Audrey just decided to put her head under water a few months ago and she had only swum with no flotation on a few rare occasions. Charlotte has always needed to be attached to Mom or Dad while in the water.
In the second half of the trip we started having more time to enjoy the pools at the campgrounds and hotels at which we stayed. The girls were getting significant pool time almost every day. With no prompting from us they both started gaining impressive skills. Audrey started by actually swimming, albeit with a weird frog-like kick. Charlotte decided she could go off on her own in an inflatable ring. More recently they both want to show me new skills every day after work.
Audrey now loves to jump off the side of the pool even if it means she goes completely underwater. And she's now swimming with a real dog paddle and an improving flutter kick. Tonight she even jumped off the side and swam back to the side. That's the last skill she needs to demonstrate to graduate to the next level at YMCA swim lessons.
Tonight Charlotte was experimenting with putting her face underwater and was also jumping off the pool stairs into my arms from a fair distance.
Overall they have both taken a huge leap in confidence and independence. They are both very proud of themselves and really loving the water. For some reason that really warms my heart.
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